We're home!! Here's some things we wrote along the way.

June 9, 2009

We are half an hour away from landing (writing this in open office). It has been a long 2 days... hard to know what to call it when the flight is 17 hours and then you lose 6 hours in addition to that!! The first flight was challenging because they gave us 2 meals in 15 hours' time.. for those of you who know me (karen) that was rough!!! :) The real journey begins when we land... hopefully we will be able to post this tonight with and update about the city, etc. Oh yeah!! It was about 45 degrees in Johannesburg, South Africa, and though we didn't leave the airport it was freezing in there... at one point I think I could see my breath!! Stephen bought a hat in case it is not warmer! Hopefully it will be a bit warmer in Malawi! More later!!

We've made it to Mabuya Camp in Lilongwe (thanks to a taxi) and we walked to the stores to get a cell phone but all the stores were closed (places close at 5:00 pm).. we get to do it all over again tomorrow, also no internet. Hopefully we'll get a phone.. then we're off to Liwonde. Not sure how we're getting there yet. Chicken curry for dinner.. tastes awesone! It's 6:00 pm and we can't wait to go to sleep!!

June 11, 2009

A lot has happened in 2 days... we were able to get a cell phone, and have used it to connect with the folks from HELP Malawi which has been wonderful!!! They have been extremely helpful and accommodating and we could not have asked for better hosts! We made the long ride from Lilongwe to Liwonde National Park in a little over 4 hours (thanks to the mini bus). We had a late dinner which was the most we had eaten all day - we had a scone in the city before we left and 2 cookies on the minibus, so we were pretty hungry by 7:00 pm!! We slept in a tent, which was real nice... and what made it especially interesting was the fact that there were unusual sounds all night, including the hippos on the river!! They almost sound like cows, but a little different.

June 12, 2009

This morning we went on a safari, on on the land and one on the water. We saw hippos, elephants, baboons, warthogs, crocodiles, impalas, gazelles and some other animals/birds that we can not think of right now!! At the time of writing, we still do not have internet access, so we are writing ahead of time to document some things. We hope to have internet access when we get to Zomba, where we will be headed tomorrow after visiting the school here in Liwonde and seeing their new medical clinic.

June 13, 2009

We have left Liwonde National Park, after going on our safari. We also visited the school and were able to see all the projects that HELP Malawi has in the works; they have done an amazing job and are doing wonderful work in the country of Malawi to help the people be able to sustain themselves, that seems to be a big part of what they are doing. We met some real nice folks who are in the Peace Corps in Malawi and will work with HELP Malawi after their commitment.

We have made our way to Zomba and found our accommodations where we wanted to stay. We were also able to meet our contacts for the project that we will start as soon as possible. The District Education Manager and his assistant; Michael and Oster are their names. We will be visiting the school and the village on Monday were we will be building a classroom block. We are very excited about that and look forward to starting this process.

June 14, 2009

We have hiked on Zomba Plateau and taken some pictures (that don't really do it justice) but there were some amazing views. That is all for now; tonight we are staying in a cabin at the Trout Farm that does not have electricity and it is about 5:30 pm and we have run out of light to be on the computer. Will write when we can and hopefully post some pictures as well.

June 16, 2009

It has been 2 days since the last post... we have done a lot!! We have visited the Namitsitsi Primary School in the village of Thulusa.. it is about 6 kilometers to the main road (which means that is is an unpaved, uneven, dirt road) and then 11 kilometers to the center of Zomba. We were met by the village head, school committee and parents, who were singing and shook our hands as we got out of the car. We met briefly with the headmaster to discuss the meeting and then proceeded to the formal meeting. The meeting took place under a tree, but despite that, it was formal and orderly. We met with the school committee, parents, village head, headmaster and the administrators from the education department. There were fomal introductions by all, then a prayer and the meeting proceeded from there. Withour going through all the details, it was an exciting and interesting process. It was decided that the school is in most need of a classroom block; they have 8 classes, 8 teachers and 4 classroom. There are 902 children in the school and half of them learn outside under a tree. A specific location was identified where the block will be built and agreements were made about the particulars of the project. Our job now is to raise the funds necessary to complete the project and we assured them we will do that no matter what! In addition to lack of classroom space the existing classrooms are in very bad disrepair, with craters in the cement floors, many rooms lacking any desks at all and some of the roofs are questionable in terms of soundness. Along with needing new classroom blocks they also need teachers housing.

June 25, 2009

So we are home now.. we arrived yesterday at JFK at 7:30 am. After we left Zomba (on the 17th) we made our way to Blantyre. We stayed at a great place called Doogles which was walking distance to the center of town, also to a coffee shop called Temptations, wonderful food there!! We did some relaxing while there. We had the privalege to see the Vice President driving through town (2 times) and also the President along with his army chaperones driving through town. We met with Mathews a lot (he was a great tour guide and a great friend) and we met with Liston a couple of times (also a great friend). We will post pictures soon. Still recovering from the long flight yesterday.